U.S. Route 219 in New York - History - Southern Expressway

Southern Expressway

Construction began in the early 1970s on the Southern Expressway, a limited-access highway connecting Buffalo to Springville. The first segment of the expressway—between the New York State Thruway east of Lackawanna and US 20A west of Orchard Park—opened to traffic by 1973 as a realignment of US 219. In between the end of the expressway and North Boston, US 219 temporarily overlapped US 20A and NY 277. The freeway was extended south to North Boston in the mid-1970s and to Springville in the early 1980s. Both segments became part of US 219 upon opening. The former surface routing of US 219 between North Boston and Hamburg was redesignated as NY 391 following the completion of the expressway's first segment in the early 1970s while the remainder of US 219's former routing south to Springville was transferred to Erie County upon the completion of the entire Springville–Buffalo segment of the Southern Expressway.

Plans to extend the Southern Expressway southward from NY 39 in Springville to Peters Road in Ashford, a distance of 4.2 miles (6.8 km), had been in development for years before they were finally put into action in the mid-2000s. Project specifications called for the installation of a four-lane right-of-way (two lanes in each direction) and the construction of 11 bridges, including twin bridges over Cattaraugus Creek. The number was later revised to nine. Areas near parts of the new freeway were to become a 41-acre (17 ha) wetland habitat. A portion of NY 39 near the current southern terminus was also reconstructed in 2007 and 2008 to accommodate for the completed interchange with US 219.

The rights to the project were awarded to Cold Spring Construction on January 26, 2007, with work commencing on June 1. Altogether, the project was initially expected to cost $86 million and be completed in late 2009. The lengthy construction time was largely due to the need to construct two bridges over the Zoar Valley gorge. As of March 2009, the projected cost of the extension had risen to $116 million. Since 2007, the project had encountered several delays due to landslides in the vicinity of Scoby Hill Road and the need to conduct a second environmental impact study on the road's impact on wetlands in the area. As a result, the $86 million in state funding that was devoted to the project was reallocated to other projects in New York, a move confirmed by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) in March 2009. At the same time, however, NYSDOT left open the possibility of eventually restoring the funding. It was restored sometime afterward, and the highway was completed on November 19, 2010, with a total price tag of $125 million.

Ownership and maintenance of the former surface alignment of US 219 north of Peters Road—including the two-lane, high-level bridge that currently carries it across the valley surrounding Cattaraugus Creek—is slated to be transferred from the state of New York to Erie and Cattaraugus counties. The two sections of road leading to and from the bridge were transferred immediately while the bridge itself will not be turned over until a state-funded rehabilitation project is completed in or around 2013. The latter half of the plan has drawn criticism from Erie County officials who believe that the state should continue to maintain the bridge due to its size, importance and the resulting cost of upkeep. Because of safety concerns, the bridge was closed to traffic on January 5, 2012, and is expected to remain closed until April while repairs are made to the structure.